CWA knitting competition (1971) | RetroFocus 

I knew shit was about to get serious when they all started powdering their hands!

I love that a knitting technique could be considered "controversial".

Wait. Are you telling me we used to have televised knitting competitions? We need to bring this back pronto

I'm a 36 year old male disabled veteran. I served for over a decade in the Army. I can strip and assemble a weapon with the best of them. I'm an expert in close quarters combat. I've recently taken up knitting as a hobby and hells bells, I was not prepared!

In case anybody else wonders: The winner was NT's Mrs. Smith (according to ABC), the traditional English-style knitting cardigan and jumper specialist.

Crazy to think that they asked in 1971 if knitting was "old fashioned". My mother was 3 years old in 1971, she is in her 50s now and this year she has taught me how to knit (I'm 18). I find it interesting that someone might've considered knitting outdated in the 70s but even today it's a skill that is being passed through generations. For example knitting in my family has been passed from my grandmother to my mother to myself and my eldest sister and most recently my 11 year old niece. I genuinely hope there is never a day where knitting is considered archaic or dead, I plan on teaching my future kids and grandkids how to knit one day :)

And the winner was... Mrs. Mary Smith from Alice Springs!

😂 isn’t it knitting old fashioned asking in 50’s 😁 2021 I’m millennial knitting right now a cardigan 😂

3:29 This judge is passively flexing her technical nous by wearing her award winning pullover.

And here we are in 2018, with the fibre arts having a real renaissance. Knitting, spinning and weaving, even felting on the rise. This was a beautiful clip. Thank you so much for curating and sharing these old clips. Absolutely fascinating and a nice alternative from the depressing politics de jour.

Jan 2021. This was interesting. My grandmother who is soon to be 90 is still to this day knitting for every baby born in our family. Even with her now arthritic hands she makes a point of it. She has 7 great great grandchildren, the last one born 3 months ago

This the cutest video I've seen in awhile but their speed is crazy! I like how some of them hold their needles as well.

I can’t believe back then knitting was “old fashioned” when now I get called a granny for doing a craft that I adore

If knitting Continental is "controversial" these people would go absolutely BONKERS if they saw me knitting in Portuguese style

Look at the 1min 11 second point. The knitter is using the same technique as I discovered on a Shetland knitter video of the 1930s-1940s, wrapping the needle with first finger left hand. The Shetlander worked at over 3 stitches per second. This knitter is knitting over 1 stitch per second which is still pretty fast.

Adorable grandmas flexing their knitting game. Everyone like that.

To knit is a talent. And for come down. And for a nice product at the end. I do knitting, since I am 10 years old, beginning with a pair of socks. Don't ask how they looked like. 🤣🤣🤣 But since this time I am in love with knitting, stitching, sewing, crochieting. I am now 61. 😁😁😁

I love how humble these older people are.

😭😭Did y’all come from the instagram reel too!?

THEY ARE SO METAL

I've started knitting and find it very relaxing . Love these ladies accents

I wish knitting competitions still exist nowadays 😌😄 ! at least we got Video game competitions 🕹🎮 !

“Controversial continental knitting technique” - the rebel!!! 🤣😂 And Im going to need televised knitting competitions to make a comeback!

I love stuff like this

I never thought of powdering my knitting needles and hands. Excellent idea.

I like how they talk to each other, instead of them being stank to each other

I need a video edit that adds "Eye of the Tiger". I knew when she broke out the powder for her needles that it was going down.

With so much stress it takes the fun out of knitting ...

Need this in my life

0:56 and 4:15 Good shots of lever knitting there! ... Not sure what the controversial European style is -- looks like continental to me, but could be talking about the Norwegian purl?

Great bit of history!!! LOL my knitting tension would increase if I tried a competition!! Fascinating different types of knitting all quite fast.

Fantastic I say it never die I love knitting my mum taught me its fab.

Aww these women are all so humble and sweet. They've been doing this for almost their entire lives and all of them are like "Well I'm okay, I'm just doing my best"

Love to see this knitting competition.

This is fantastic!! Those ladies are speedy!

I knit English style. I can't get on with continental or other methods. Funny to hear them say in 1971 that knitting was old fashioned. A lot of my mother's friends don't knit - baby boomer generation don't knit that much so they probably thought it was old fashioned when they saw these older ladies doing it.

Thank you so much!!!!

Naturally intense, just because that is what a competition is about! Every lady humble n kind. They didnt need all the silly drama.

Very good

Isn't it interesting that so many of these ladies hold their right-hand needle with the pen method rather than the knife method? That's pretty rare nowadays.

it's so sad what happened to these women. :( for those who don't know, during the war, knitters around the UK were basically drafted and forced out of their homes to work in factories for the war. of course, the government had kept an eye out for these speed-knitting competitions and favoured those "speed-knitters". they kept the knitters isolated in rooms and only paid them with food for every piece they completed for soldiers. all but 2 of the women you see in this video were all drafted. one of them died (the one using the "controversial" stitch), and the other one missed the drafting period to visit her family in germany. after the war, one of the knitters you see in this video fell ill due to an infection in her wrist, which the medicine at the time could not heal, and she lived with a debilitating condition for the rest of her life. she died in 2001 at the age of 73 due to an unrelated condition, but it still made it hard for her as she relied on hospital staff for the latter 3 years of her life.

That background clattering noise sounds like an automatic weaving loom - NOT anything to do with knitting! Great knitters. I wish this showed the entire competition, though, as simply showing short snippets is NOT NEARLY LONG ENOUGH!

It makes it sound like the noisiest event ever. Not possible!

This is very interesting, I've been looking for something like this for a while but I couldn't find anything in Spanish, but I found it in English

How fun

...get it, get it...nice job ladies! :-)

this is so intense

Oh, to be able to watch each one in slow motion.

Not one sentence was started with "so"!! Lovely to hear people speaking so articulately.

I'm in the CWA. I'm wondering if this is still run. I would love to see it in real life if possible.

The lady from WA had cauliflower ears 😭

I wish the Bavarian lady could have won (representing my home state) but this is great nonetheless!

hopefully these ladies passed on their vast knowledge to someone else♥

Notice, Mrs. Smith who seems to have been declared fastest is not knitting continental. One hears so often that 'continental is faster' as if that is inherently so.

"controversial European technique"? How is that controversial? 😂 It's continental knitting, isn't it? I knit continental as well.

Umm that’s awesome!

_I’ve made mistakes. Unforgivable mistakes._ This is in the context of a knitting competition, but she sounds like she’s killed before.

All these years later and I knit the same way….don’t let anyone tell you English style is slower than continental..it’s a lot faster

Ostras, qué estres. Yo no podría

who won?

Wait...all that and you don't tell us WHO WON?????

Why didn't this show the winner?!?

Who won?

We never did find out who won the competition!!!!!

But, who won!?

Who won!?! this isn't funny! I must know!!!

Who won??

Who won???

The Bavarian born lady is so prim and proper! Now, sadly that sort of attitude is very rare amongst women.

really you didnt tell us who won! good grief!

Oh so they’re just straight up not gonna tell us who won???

O come on so win

So-- who won?

Why are the comments for all these old videos always so cancerous?

1) Faster knitting doesn't make you a BETTER KNITTER. 2) there is NO right way to knit or Wrong way to knit. That is not true. 3) this obsession with knitting FASTER is so irrelevant, just enjoy knitting at any damn pace you want and MAKE sure at all costs that you don't get /suffer REPETITIVE STRAIN Injury from trying to knit fast and abusing your hands . 4) depending on the stitching you're doing, cables, lace etc, YOU will have to slow down so you don't make errors etc. You can get away with faster knitting if its straight stockinette. I believe people who knit often can and do knit faster than the average, but I've been knitting for years and do not knit like this, and no thanks. I got repetitive strain injury 2 years ago...still have issues with it sometimes and I cannot abuse my hands. 5)This Isn't a race people - no way!!

All this nostalgia... It's not like anything important or interesting is happening in Australia and the world at the moment...

Who won?